COOKED meat transported from the bird flu-infected Bernard Matthews farm to Hungary was today ruled safe by experts.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is continuing its investigation into the outbreak in Holton, Suffolk, but officials claim that meat leaving the site is not a risk.

Hungary's chief vet, Lajos Bognar, said lorries of meat had left Suffolk on Wednesday last week. The meat was being tested, with results expected today.

But a Defra spokeswoman said there was no risk of cooked meat which had left the Bernard Matthews farm since the H5N1 outbreak on February 1 being contaminated with bird flu.

"The heating process kills the virus and therefore this meat will be perfectly safe," she said.

"Although the farm was closed down and the sheds tested as soon as the outbreak was confirmed, the processing plant continues to work as normal.

"Processed meat delivered from elsewhere in Britain may have also left the site before Bernard Matthews stopped transporting last week. But this will also be safe because it will not have been from within the infected zone.

"The meat will not have come into contact with any area of contamination."

The spokeswoman said Hungarian vets were testing cooked and processed meat transported from Suffolk but the process was probably being carried out to reassure the public.

She added that test results on the 18 remaining sheds at the Suffolk plant were clear.

Dr Andrew Wadge, the Food Standards Agency's chief scientist, said the risk to the public was tiny.

"There has been no evidence of people getting bird flu through food," he said. "There is no real risk for people, providing they make sure the poultry is cooked properly."

But food expert Joanna Blythman said the public should be worried about developments at the Suffolk farm.

She added: "It's one thing for the Foods Standards Agency to say it's OK as long as you cook it properly, but that's really not acceptable.

"We should be able to buy poultry at a point of sale which is clean and wholesome.

"Last year 50% of all British chickens were contaminated with drug-resistant strains of E-coli. Now we've got to add bird flu to the list."

A Bernard Matthews spokesman confirmed that regular transportation of meat in and out of the Suffolk plant continued until Thursday last week - but no rules had been broken.

He said: "We want to reassure consumers that Bernard Matthews products are perfectly safe to eat."

The firm has suspended trade between Hungary and the UK.